Panel To Determine Action On Squires

Windsor Locks News Notes

July 18, 1997

The police commission will meet Monday evening at town hall to decide whether to fire or discipline Officer Daniel Squires, who is accused of conduct unbecoming an officer and of lying to two sergeants who conducted an internal investigation earlier this year.

A hearing into the accusations concluded Wednesday night. Chief William Gifford has recommended that the 10-year veteran of the police force lose his job.

The police commission is to begin deliberations at 7 p.m.

Hearings arising from the internal investigation already have resulted in the dismissal of Sgt. John MacDougald, a 24-year veteran who was found to have had a sexual affair with a 17-year-old girl who was a witness in a criminal case MacDougald was investigating. He is appealing his firing to the state Department of Labor.

In summarizing Squires' defense late Wednesday, attorney Raymond Parlato argued that the officer may have ``done things that were not polite,'' including secretly tape-recording conversations with the chief and other superiors within the department. But Parlato argued that this was not illegal, and Squires did testify that he brought information of MacDougald's affair to the police commission chairman in 1995.

One of the allegations against Squires is that he spent hours questioning Kim Zolciak, the girl MacDougald was involved with, while on duty and without telling the chief or a supervising officer that he was doing so. Gifford also faulted him for talking about internal police matters with a member of the public, the woman whose complaint prompted the internal investigation.